Prior to starring as Dr. Jason Bull in Bull, Michael Weatherly was best known for playing Tony DiNozzo in fellow CBS series NCIS for 13 seasons. With Bull having wrapped its six-season run in 2022, there’s been speculation since then about if Tony will return to NCIS someday, and that’s been reignited by one of Weatherly’s recent social media posts. Just days after posting a Gibbs slap throwback, the actor teased that “things are starting to happen” for him, so of course fans have thoughts about this.
Towards the end of July, Weatherly tweeted a photo of a friend of his giving him the Gibbs slap, referencing how Mark Harmon’s Leroy Jethro Gibbs would lightly hit Tony on the back of the head whenever he said something irritating, stupid, etc. Shortly thereafter Weatherly brought up the aforementioned tease while sharing the song “Shakedown Cruise” from Jay Ferguson, as you’ll see below.
This song exists to remind you that one summer afternoon… in the late 1970’s… life was PERFECT. By the way- I feel like things are starting to happen. Things that will be very exciting. Stay tuned. In the meantime, listen to this:
Jay Ferguson – Shakedown Cruise…
— Michael Weatherly (@M_Weatherly) July 27, 2023
While most of the comments are simply people being positive about what Michael Weatherly has coming up next, naturally there were some curious if this is NCIS-related, especially with this tweet coming so soon after the Gibbs slap post. For example, @ehkross said this, along with posting a picture of Tony:
How much longer do we have to wait?
Like Gibbs, Pauley Perrette’s Abby Sciuto and David McCallum’s Donald Mallard, Tony DiNozzo first appeared in the JAG episodes “Ice Queen” and “Meltdown,” which served as the NCIS backdoor pilot and aired in April 2003, a year after Michael Weatherly’s time as Logan Cale on Dark Angel concluded. Then in September 2003, NCIS began, and Tony was one of its leading characters for the first TV seasons. So although it’s been nearly a decade since Weatherly left the show, there are a lot of people who remember Tony fondly and would like to see him return, like @apps_vg:
We are excited for the Reunion Dinozzo
Weatherly departed NCIS in the Season 13 finale “Family First” after learning about the existence of his daughter Tali, whose mother was Cote de Pablo’s Ziva David, his NCIS teammate who exited the show early in Season 11. Although Ziva was said to have been killed in “Family First,” Tony held out hope that she was still alive and left the law enforcement agency to look for her and care for his daughter. Sure enough, in the NCIS Season 16 finale, titled “Daughters,” Ziva was revealed to be alive, and by Season 17’s “In the Wind,” she left for Paris to reunite with Tony and Tali. So all these years later, you can’t blame people for wanting Weatherly to stop by NCIS again. Here’s what @elbeesaid to his post:
Tease.
A tweet from Michael Weatherly in January 2023 prompted speculation that a “Tiva” reunion may be in the cards for NCIS, but more than half a year later, this has not been officially confirmed. It’s also worth noting that since Mark Harmon left NCIS early into Season 19, if Tony DiNozzo was to resurface, it’s unlikely he would see Gibbs again unless an arrangement was reached with Harmon too. Still, with Sean Murray, Brian Dietzen, Rocky Carroll and David McCallum all still on NCIS, it’s not like there’d be a lack of familiar faces surrounding Weatherly. Let’s cap this off with @manko_gloria’s comment:
Hopefully you[r’e] back soon! NCIS and Bull – both awesome
In September 2022, NCIS showrunner Steven D. Binder sounded enthusiastic about the idea of Michael Weatherly stopping by again, and the following November, the actor amusingly fed into the hype of potentially reprising DiNozzo. For now though, nothing is set in stone, though as long as NCIS continues to air on CBS, there will always be a chance it could happen. Needless to say we’ll let you know if anything is officially announced on that front.
NCIS’ 20 seasons can be streamed with a Paramount+ subscription, and although the show has been renewed for Season 21, it’s unclear when it will arrive. Browse through our 2023 TV schedule to see what programming is currently airing or arriving in the coming months.